The driving question revolves around a shaping of learning experiences for children with the aid of an advanced graphing calculator in an informal environment. This study investigates how learning is triggered by an event that deeply engages learners, offering affordances that are typically missing from inert sequences of learning in everyday classrooms.
Findings highlight three important considerations: (i) all participants showed a positive gain in knowledge, both in procedural and, more importantly, in conceptually connected knowledge; (ii) participants who had access to graphing calculators learned with understanding and appeared to be better able to draw inferences that connected inert knowledge with observed and grounded phenomena; and, (iii) low-achieving participants who had access to graphing calculators seemed to show the highest gains

This research project establishes a baseline that foreshadows a longitudinal study addressing the learning outcomes that occur (i) before, (ii) during, and (iii) after the dams come down. A mixed methods approach was used. Empirical data was collected in pre- and post-tests, that involved student exercises in STEM and social studies.